Institute on Religion & Democracy

10/20/2026

How many Episcopalians are attending church today, and what do new statistics on baptism, marriages and confirmations tell us about where the denomination is headed? IRD's Jeff Walton chats with Anglican TV's Kevin Kallsen to unpack the latest numbers.

Today I joined Kevin Kallsen of the Anglican Unscripted podcast to discuss last week’s release of Episcopal Church statistics for...

10/20/2026

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10/19/2026

For Jessica Baustian, becoming Catholic did not mean turning her back on her Jewish heritage. It meant seeing that heritage through Christ.

Jessica Baustian came to understand more deeply how profoundly Jewish the roots of her Catholic faith are.

10/16/2026

Monday October 19, our October foreign policy luncheon welcomes Prof. Dr. Bernhard Seliger of the Hanns Seidel Foundation, a German think tank affiliated with Bavaria’s Christian Social Union. Link in the comments below.

10/16/2026

Episcopal Church officials are spinning declining attendance numbers as “stabilizing.” But, IRD's Jeff Walton reports, leading indicators like baptisms, marriages and confirmations signal an even rougher road ahead for the mainline Protestant denomination.

2025 data released by the Episcopal Church shows a gradual decline in attendance and larger drops in marriages, baptisms and other metrics.

10/15/2026

This morning's announcement by President Trump canceling a planned livestream of the Fort Hood shooter's ex*****on shifts course from an earlier announcement by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. How should Christians respond?

IRD President Mark Tooley joins Washington Examiner Editor Peter Laffin to discuss the future of Christian nationalism with Theologian Rusty Reno.

10/14/2026

The Church today more than ever needs to listen to our Puddleglums and follow their faithfulness, writes Asbury Seminarian Andrew Irwin. Especially when old wounds reopen and division runs deep.

In communities marked by recurring division, the reconciliation of the cross can begin to seem like pleasant fiction.

10/13/2026

There are few real socialists in American politics, but that’s not the case in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Andy Burnham recently expressed his determination to take his party and country hard left.

Abstract statist ideologies, which force an entire population to live according to the dictates of the latest ruling elite, inevitably yield worse results.

10/09/2026

Virginia’s Catholic bishops are strongly advocating against two ballot initiatives that stand at odds with Catholic social teaching.

Virginia's Catholic bishops have instructed their clergy and laity to oppose a ballot measure enshrining abortion in the state constitution.

10/08/2026

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were driven from public life amid mass condemnation, and he went to prison. But would they fare differently today?

Former televangelist Jim Bakker’s death recalls a pivotal episode in American religious history but also evinces that sad condition of our current religious and wider public life, for which he was a preamble.